


Comin' Home

by Dearly_Divided



Category: Far Cry 5
Genre: Angst, But You Get It, Family Bonding, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Papa Bear Jacob, Parent-Child Relationship, Protectiveness, Rook's 20 in this so not exactly a child, Soft(ish) Jacob, The Deputy's Jacob's daughter au, The Seeds are not good at normal emotions or healthy relationships, Will someone please hug my deputy?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 14:41:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18802381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dearly_Divided/pseuds/Dearly_Divided
Summary: Joseph inclined his head, placing a hand over his heart. “I’m truly sorry for your loss.” He sounded it too. Rook had been exposed to enough false platitudes after her mother’s death to last a lifetime. “And your father?”Rook shrugged. “Not a clue. Never met him. Don’t think he’d mind too much though, he was in the army himself. 82nd Airborne, just like my grandpa. Maybe fighting’s in my blood,” she mused.A wide, beaming smile graced Joseph’s face.





	Comin' Home

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a tumblr request. Hope You guys like it :)

Rook looked so much like her father. She had her mother’s curls, but they were a beautiful shade of auburn. Her wide, round eyes the same piercing shade of blue. The way she smiled or tilted her chin when she was deep in thought, all of it was Jacob’s. She was beautiful, undeniably her father’s daughter. It wasn’t just on the surface either. Even without his presence in her life she’d managed to inherit his stubbornness and grit. It was tempered, slightly, by her mother’s impossible patience and gentle kindness.

Her mother had been nice, sweet even, far too good for someone like him. Jacob still wasn’t sure how they’d ended up tangled in the sheets of her bed, but he was gone the next morning without a word. Jacob didn’t do relationships, he didn’t deserve that kind of happiness, that blissful domesticity that came with a loving partner. Sex was a release, nothing more. They’d both known that one night was all it was ever going to be, one night of meaningless, marvellous sex.

Of course, when Rook was born nine months later, her mother had started to regret her decision not to at least get Jacob’s number or his last name. Not because she wanted to guilt him into raising his daughter with her, but because she firmly believed that if nothing else, he deserved to know he had a daughter. Little did she know that if Jacob had even suspected that he had a child, he would have moved heaven and earth to find her, and woe betide anyone who stood in his way.

Her mom raised her alone, without a man by her side for 19 years, but Rook never suffered because of it. She knew about her father, as much as her mother could remember at any rate. His name was Jacob, he’d been in the military - the 82nd airborne division. The only reason that her mom had remembered was because her own father had been in the same unit, though almost twenty years before - it was how they’d started talking, when Rook’s mother had recognised the familiar patch on Jacob’s army jacket. Her mom had also told her about the scars that littered Jacob’s face and arms, though she hadn’t asked how they’d come to be. Rook had rolled her eyes and gagged when her mom had suggested that they only added to his _rugged appeal_. Along with an approximation of his age, it was enough for Rook to try and seek him out, if she so chose. After all, how many scarred, ginger, Jacob’s could there have possibly been in the 82nd?

But Rook had no desire to look for her father. It wasn’t that she had any ill will towards him, she just didn’t see the point. At best he was a sperm donor, and at worst her mother had been nothing but a quickie to him, and she a mistake. No, Rook’s mother and her family had been the ones to raise her, to teach her right from wrong. She’d never needed a father, and she hadn’t particularly wanted one either. Her mom was her hero, and she was all Rook had ever needed.

Needless to say, when she died it ripped through Rook like nothing else could. An accident, a car crash. She’d gone out for milk and had never come home. Rook couldn’t even blame the driver – he’s had a heart attack at the wheel, a freak accident. An act of God, one of her mother’s friends had said to her at the funeral. She had to resist the urge to deck her for saying it, Rook didn’t believe in god, and certainly not one who’d take the one person who meant the world to her in such a violent way. 

Without her mother, Rook had nothing left tying her to her home town. Her grandfather was the one to encourage her to move on, find some other place to put down her roots and grow. She flipped out a map, shut her eyes, spun it a few times and dropped her finger down.

Which was how Rook ended up in Hope County, applying for a position as a Junior Deputy. Which inevitably led to where was she was now, staring down Joseph Seed in his church. Maybe if the Marshal hadn’t let her come in here blind, deeming the details _above her pay grade_ , then she might have put two and two together and been somewhat prepared to walk into the clusterfuck that was waiting to happen.

Considering Rook had never seen a picture of her father, she had no way of knowing how truly striking the resemblance was between the two. Her mom had always told her she looked like him, but really, they’d spent one night together over 20 years ago -how well did she _really_ remember how he looked? Rook hadn’t exactly taken her word as gospel truth.

But as she marched down the pews of the church with far more confidence than she really felt, Joseph met her gaze and whatever words he’d been about to say had been lost to him as he stared wide eyed at her, gaping like a fish. She would have smirked at catching him so off guard if it wasn’t for the growing pit of dread in her stomach.

“God told me you were coming,” he breathed, his quiet voice echoing in the silent church. “But it seems even he does not reveal every last detail.” He chuckled softly, glancing to his brothers and sisters who were closing in around him. “There are no mistakes, Deputy, no coincidences. You were brought here, my child, for a greater purpose.”

Rook could only blink at him. How the fuck was she supposed to respond to that?

“He spoke of your place at our side, and I understand now.”

The Marshal was glancing between the two of them with a frown. “Rook, wanna tell me what the fuck’s going on here?” he asked, as if she was somehow in on this and not just as confused as he was.

But Joseph ignored him, ignored everyone as he spoke again to her. “How old are you, Deputy Rook?”

For the life of her, Rook couldn’t fathom how that was relevant, but she was distinctly aware of the countless peggie guards that surrounded them, more than a few who were armed and just crazy enough to start shooting the place up. If humouring him was how they all got out of this in one piece, then so be it. “Twenty.” 

Those blue eyes of his narrowed in disapproval. “Barely more than a child,” he scoffed, flickering his gaze to the Sheriff, “And yet you slap a gun in her hand and send her off like a lamb to slaughter.”

“Rook’s old enough to know right from wrong and make that decision herself. No one forced her here,” he replied tensely. Rook knew her age had been a hot button topic when she’d signed up. The people back home hadn’t been too thrilled of a _kid_ making Junior Deputy, but Whitehorse, Hudson and Pratt had been firmly in her corner. They, at least, were happy that she’d joined. They believed in her, they saw her potential, even if no one else did

Joseph returned his attention to Rook. “You weren’t born in Hope County, were you?” He phrased it as a question, but she suspected he knew the answer.

Rook shook her head anyway.

Joseph took a step towards her. Rook had to fight against all of her impulses not to take a step back. “Where are your parents, my child? Surely they cannot be pleased about the path you have chosen to take?” 

A snort sounded behind her. “Are you fucking kidding me, right now? Will you fucking arrest him, Rook, so we can all go fucking home?” Burke growled. No one paid him any attention, but for all his talk he made no move to step forward himself.

She hesitated.

“Answer the question, Rook,” Whitehorse prodded gently. While Joseph was interrogating her, he wasn’t ordering his people to tear them apart. 

Rook took a deep breath. “My mother’s dead. She died 18 months ago.” It was surreal to be talking about her mother with the leader of a murderous cult in the middle of a church halfway through an arrest surrounded by armed crazy people, but here they all were. 

Joseph inclined his head, placing a hand over his heart. “I’m truly sorry for your loss.” He sounded it too. Rook had been exposed to enough false platitudes after her mother’s death to last a lifetime. “And your father?” 

Rook shrugged. “Not a clue. Never met him. Don’t think he’d mind too much though, he was in the army himself. 82nd Airborne, just like my grandpa. Maybe fighting’s in my blood,” she mused.

A wide, beaming smile graced Joseph’s face, and Rook’s stomach dropped. She had the sudden feeling that she’d said something she shouldn’t have, that she’d made a mistake she couldn’t take back. She risked a glance behind her at Whitehorse, who was staring back at her, worry bleeding across his weathered face.

Joseph’s voice brought her attention back to him, but he wasn’t speaking to her, rather addressing his brothers and sister behind him. “Do you see it now, Jacob? I told you she was special, I told you she was coming to join us, not destroy us.” 

Rook’s gaze followed Joseph’s, for the first time really taking in the three figures – his family. Her eyes found _him_ first, taller than his siblings and broader too. Jacob Seed, who was staring so intensely at her that she had the sudden urge to run and hide. She took stock of him, noting his red hair, blue eyes, the scars across his face and arms, then, finally, the battered army jacket with an all too familiar patch sewn across the top pocket. 82nd Airborne. A wave of nausea crashed over her as realisation sunk in, and Rook had to fight to stay on her feet as her breath left her. No, it couldn’t be, there was no fucking way-

“God has brought your daughter, my niece, home to us,” Joseph said, raising his arms in the air like it was a revelation from heaven itself. 

Rook might have been frozen in shock, but Whitehorse wasn’t. The moment the words had left Joseph’s mouth his hand was on her shoulder, yanking her back and flinging her behind him. She hit the ground with a muffled cry. “Run, Rook! Don’t you dare look back, RUN!” he yelled, pulling out his pistol and aiming it at Joseph Seed. Marshal Burke, for all his shit talking, fell dutifully in next to him, shielding her from the Seeds. 

Rook didn’t need to be told twice, scrambling desperately to her feet, leaving her gun on the floor beside her. She vaguely registered the sound of yelling and guns going off behind her, but the loud thrum of her pulse in her ears drowned most of it out. All she could focus on was running, her feet hitting the floor as she launched herself at the doors of the church. She almost made it too, before a strong pair of arms wrapped around her waist and hauled her back. A glance down told her exactly whose arms they were. 

“No! Let me _go,_ you fucking asshole!” she hissed, kicking out wildly, though it did her little good. She could have sworn she heard him laugh, almost giddily.

“Settle down, pup,” a rough voice whispered in her ear. “You’re not going anywhere, not when I’ve just got you back.”

“Fuck you!” Rook spat, throwing back an elbow. It landed its mark and Rook felt a small thrill run through her as he grunted in pain, but he kept his hold on her.

“A little help, Faith!” he snapped as Rook started to claw at the arms that restrained her.

Like a vision the youngest Seed appeared before her, smiling serenely as she took Rook in. “You’re so pretty!” she gasped, reaching into the pocket of her white lacy dress, “You don’t need to be scared, Rook, we won’t hurt you. You’ll see, we’ll take good care of our little Seedling.” She laughed and before Rook could even think to reply Faith brought her fist to her mouth and blew a shimmering green powder into Rook’s face.

Her vision spun and flickered as she sagged back against Jacob, who immediately hefted her into his arms bridal style. “I gotcha, pup.” Oblivion overtook her.

xxx

When Rook next opened her eyes, she found herself lying in an unfamiliar room with metal walls painted a delightful shade of green. A bunker. She was in a bunker. With a groan she managed to pull herself into a seated position, only to realise that she wasn’t alone in the room, and that sitting in a metal fold out chair by her bedside was Jacob Seed. Her father.

Her heart skipped a beat as she froze like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar. His inscrutable blue eyes were fixed on her, but he seemed to be waiting for her to make the first move.

Instinctively Rook went to swing out, or maybe just push him out of the way so she could start running for freedom, but the remnants of bliss in her system made her movements sluggish, and Jacob caught her hand, pushing it down against the mattress.

He shook his head sadly, sighing, more for dramatic effect than anything else, Rook thought.

“There’s no use fighting me, pup. Even if you get past me, which you won’t, there’s sixty of my strongest between you and that gate. You’re not going anywhere,” he rumbled.

Rook wanted to scream almost as she wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. “Where am I?” she asked instead. 

Jacob smiled, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. “Safe. It’s not ideal, I know,” he said, shrugging. “But it’ll do for now.”

Rook watched him warily, “What happened to the others? My friends?” She somehow doubted they were being treated to the same level of hospitality she was receiving.

Something flickered in Jacob’s eyes, but it was gone too quickly for her to name it. “What happened to your mom?”

Her gut clenched painfully, both at the thought of whatever awful fates had befallen Whitehorse and the others and the unwelcome reminder of her mother.

“Car hit her. It was an accident.”

Jacob nodded thoughtfully, “I didn’t know about you. I would have been around more if I had. She wouldn’t have been able to keep you from me.”

“I don’t care,” she replied hollowly. “I didn’t need a father when I was a kid and I don’t want one now. You owe me nothing, let me go.”

He seemed more amused than perturbed by her vitriol, “You know, Rook, I don’t know if my brother hears God or not. It doesn’t really matter, at the end of the day he’s right. Society’s hurtling towards the edge, and we’ve gotta be ready for when it hits. All we can do is prepare. I’ll do whatever’s necessary to keep my family safe through the Collapse, and that includes you. You’re my _daughter_.” Rook flinched at the term, and Jacob huffed out another chuckle. “I’ll keep you safe here, away from the fighting, away from your weak little friends, away from anyone who’d hurt you.”

He reached for her, but even with his bliss still running through her system, Rook was able to muster the strength and dexterity to yank her limbs out of his reach, curling into a tight ball at the top of her bed. He regarded her with a sigh, looking more disappointed than surprised. “You can hate me all you want, pup, it makes no difference. I’ll do what needs to be done. Joseph’s right, your place is right here with me. You’ll learn in time.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed, let me know if you did with some Kudos and/or comments! :)


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